MH-401 Various Artists - Ropeladder 12Cancel your piano lessons and sell off the livestock. It's a partial preview of the onslaught of full-length releases to come forward from the Mush generator, a spirited gathering of the most prolific underground artists in hip-hop. If some of the names are not yet familiar, this is your wake-up call. Spanning the completely experimental to the sound classic, Ropeladder 12 assembles the most hungry and talented artists of our generation. From bare bones beats to orchestral soundtracks, the music is of its own kind and standard. From meticulous rhyme to boisterous free-verse, the poetry is irreplaceable. Over thirty contributing artists share with Mush, their most unforgettable works.

This is the year’s best compilation to date. 5/5 - Revolver / Strange, beautiful, and stunning. Record of the month. 5/5 - Muzik / Signifies that the future of hip-hop is here, and it ain’t on Def Jam, my peoples - Urb

There's nothing better than a bunch of British schoolchildren singing "Dripping from a dead dog's eye." So goes Jel's intro into Ropeladder 12, a compilation full of smart ambitious young people with lots to say, such as Baltimore's Labtekwon and Apani's ecological soul. On the instrumental "Listen," Cinncinnati's Mr. Dibbs and Dj Osiris assemble factory steam, a nomadic sax, cavernous conga and a violin that could tremolo through stone. Doseone wins Breath Race 2000 on "Inventor's Cry." Over a last man on earth organ, he shakes a wooden pencil leg at breakneck, Bone Thug speed, saying, "Forgive me talking to myself with a tone of a spoiled kid with a smokin' language in my hand and a gun cabinet latch swinging open in the lying den. / I'm going halo tipping." - The Wire